Straight outta Henan: an interview with comedian Jiaoying Summers
Now for something completely different—this week at least
Indulgent reader: this newsletter should perhaps change its name to The China Quarterly. If you’re paying subscriber, please let me know if you’d like a refund, or a two free months of what comes next at The China Week.
I took time off for the holidays. And then my plan to come roaring back was interrupted by an ice-storm which took out power for ten days at my home near Nashville. But the enforced electricity-poor vacation gave me plenty of time to think about the purpose of The China Week, and what value I can bring to a world of graphomania, of a million newsletters and podcasts. There are so many excellent independent journalists, writers, podcasters, and filmmakers. And so very much mediocre slop. We drown in bot puke and human-generated content.
My conclusion is that no one needs a general summary of the week’s China news: you can tailor one to your specific interests using a search engine or chatbot. So, instead, I am going to send you one thing a week— a short essay, an interview, a translation, some recommended reading, or something else based on my experience living in China from 1995 to 2015, and on the frequent conversations I continue to have with people who live in or study China through my work as editor-in-chief of The China Project (2016-2023) and since then as an editorial fellow at ChinaFile, and as the host of Rhyming Chaos podcast. These will usually be written or made for The China Week, but I’ll also cross post my work from elsewhere if relevant. If you’ve made it this far, I’d also appreciate feedback on the idea of regular live interviews about the news.
This week I give you a complete change of tone: an interview with comedian Jiaoying Summers.
She built a following of more than three million across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic through, er, viral stand-up clips. She does ethnic shtick, off-color jokes, and raunchy crowd work , but audiences are also drawn to monologues and interviews on topics such as the trauma of growing up in small-town China with an alcoholic father.
I did this interview for the Asia Society’s ChinaFile as part of a new project we’re working on called Hǎi 海.